Using correspondence analysis to monitor the persona segmentation process

Persona segmentation is the first phase of the persona method. It can be defined as the process of creating representative groups of similar users. Since the origin of the persona technique, both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used to create persona segments. While the qualitative approach has been criticized because of its lack of accuracy in creating persona segments, application of quantitative methods seems to be suffering from the same problem, due to inconsiderate application of statistical techniques. In this paper, we present Correspondence Analysis, an exploratory data technique, as an alternative quantitative persona segmentation method. We demonstrate that this method is appropriate to create useful persona profiles, and, additionally, it can aid in carefully monitoring the segmentation process. Copyright © 2012 ACM.